Christmas Harvest in the fields. – Christmas Trees and Sprouts being harvested for Christmas.The wet Autumn has meant farmers are still trying to harvest some other crops to0…..

Christmas Jumpers. – See how the wool for your jumper get from the sheep to Santa’s sack!

Using Wildlife to help you celebrate Christmas. – Gives details of how to make a traditional Christmas Wreath decoration using foliage from the countryside

Coming soon 12 Days of Great British Foods for Christmas

NATIONAL CURRICULUM SUBJECTS LINKS.

Our programs link too many parts of the curriculum. Some of these links are directly through the content. Other links are dependent on the way you use these videos for class discussions etc. I have added some comments to each of the sections of the curriculum below and how the videos show or highlight these areas, either to connect to current learning or revise past learning. Curriculum Links to video content

Technology – Cooking & Nutrition

Key stage 1

Understand where food comes from.

Key stage 2

Understand seasonality, and know where and how a variety of ingredients are grown, reared, caught and processed.

The videos show the cycles of how food is produced throughout the year giving a far better understanding of the time it takes to produce food and its connection with seasonality.

Science

For Year 1 pupils the videos show the life cycles of plants and animals, how they are sown or born then grow and are harvested. This is shown as it really happens and linked to the seasons.

Year 1

Plants

Identify and name a variety of common plants,including garden plants,wild plants and trees,and those classified as deciduous and evergreen

Identify and describe the basic structure of a variety of common flowering plants, including roots, stem/trunk, leaves and flowers

Animals Including humans

Identify and name a variety of common animals that are birds, fish, amphibians, reptiles, mammals and invertebrates

Identify and name a variety of common animals that are carnivores, herbivores and omnivores

Describe and compare the structure of a variety of common animals (birds, fish, amphibians, reptiles, mammals and invertebrates, and including pets)

Seasonal Changes

Observe changes across the four seasons

Observe and describe weather associated with the seasons and how day length varies.

Year 2

For year 2 pupils the videos allow them to observe the life cycles of plants and animals and how farmers provide for the basic needs of both their animals and plants.

Living things and their habitats

Explore and compare the differences between things that are living, dead,and things that have never been alive.

Identify that most living things live in habitats to which they are suited and describe how different habitats provide for the basic needs of different kinds of animals and plants, and how they depend on each other

Identify and name a variety of plants and animals in their habitats, including micro-habitats

Describe how animals obtain their food from plants and other animals, using the idea of a simple food chain, and identify and name different sources of food

Plants

Observe and describe how seed sand bulbs grow into mature plants

Find out and describe how plants need water, light and a suitable temperature to grow and stay healthy

Animals including humans

Notice that animals,including humans,have off spring which grow into adults

Find out about and describe the basic needs of animals, including humans,for survival (water, food and air)

Year 3

For year 3 pupils the videos give you the opportunity to link to the parts of plants and how this is important to the food we eat from each part of the plant. How animals need a balanced diet just like humans.

Plants

Identify and describe the functions of different parts of flowering plants: roots, stem/trunk, leaves and flowers

Explore the requirements of plants for life and growth (air, light, water, nutrients from soil, and room to grow) and how they vary from plant to plant

Investigate the way in which water is transported within plants

Explore the part that flowers play in the life cycle of flowering plants, including pollination, seed formation and seed dispersal

Animals including humans

Identify that animals,including humans,need the right types and amount of nutrition,and that they cannot make their own food;they get nutrition from what they eat

Rocks

Recognise that soils are made from rocks and organic matter.

Year 4

For year 4 pupils the videos will help them make connections between work on classification and the animals found locally on farms and in the countryside. Use this as a basis for the construction of their first food chains based on the food they eat.

Living things and their habitats

Recognise that living things can be grouped in a variety of ways

Explore and use classification keys to help group, identify and name a variety of living things in their local and wider environment

Recognise that environments can change and that this can sometimes pose dangers to living things.

Animals including humans

Construct and interpret a variety of food chains, identifying producers, predators and prey

Year 5

For year 5 pupils the videos will allow them to follow the life cycles on local animals and plants which they would not be able to witness as they progress through the year.

All living things

Describe the differences in the life cycles of a mammal, an amphibian, an insect and a bird

Describe the life process of reproduction in some plants and animals

Year 6

For year 6 pupils the videos will allow pupils to observe different local living things and use their knowledge of classification to put them into groups. The way farmers select breeding animals is also a good way to start the teaching of evolution and inheritance.

Living things and their habitats

Describe how living things are classified into broad groups according to common observable characteristics and based on similarities and differences, including micro-organisms, plants and animals

Give reasons for classifying plants and animals based on specific characteristics

Evolution and inheritance

Recognise that living things have changed over time and that fossils provide information about living things that inhabited the Earth millions of years ago

Recognise that living things produce offspring of the same kind, but normally offspring vary and are not identical to their parents

Identify how animals and plants are adapted to suit their environment in different ways and that adaptation may lead to evolution

Curriculum links which can be made via use of video for discussion or as source of data about food production etc

English

Participate in discussions and debates

Articulate and justify answers, arguments and opinions

Year 1

Listening to and discussing a wide range of non-fiction at a level beyond that at which they can read independently

Year 2

Listening to, discussing and expressing views about a wide range of contemporary and classic poetry, stories and non-fiction at a level beyond that at which they can read independently

Writing narratives about personal experiences and those of others (real and fictional)

Writing about real events

Writing for different purposes

Year 3-4

Pupils should continue to have opportunities to write for a range of real purposes and audiences as part of their work across the curriculum. These purposes and audiences should underpin the decisions about the form the writing should take, such as a narrative, an explanation or a description

Year 5-6

Distinguish between statements of fact and opinion

Maths

Year 1-2

Teaching should also involve using a range of measures to describe and compare different quantities such as length, mass, capacity/volume, time and money.

Year 3

Interpret and present data using bar charts, pictograms and tables

Year 4

Interpret and present discrete and continuous data using appropriate graphical methods, including bar charts and time graphs.

Key stage 1

Key stage 2

Select, use and combine a variety of software (including internet services) on a range of digital devices to design and create a range of programs, systems and content that accomplish given goals, including collecting, analysing, evaluating and presenting data and information

Geography

A high-quality geography education should inspire in pupils a curiosity and fascination about the world and its people that will remain with them for the rest of their lives. Teaching should equip pupils with knowledge about diverse places, people, resources and natural and human environments, together with a deep understanding of the Earth’s key physical and human processes. As pupils progress, their growing knowledge about the world should help them to deepen their understanding of the interaction between physical and human processes, and of the formation and use of landscapes and environments.

Geographical knowledge, understanding and skills provide the frameworks and approaches that explain how the Earth’s features at different scales are shaped, interconnected and change over time.

Understand the processes that give rise to key physical and human geographical features of the world, how these are interdependent and how they bring about spatial variation and change over time.

Agriculture, horticulture food production and the countryside are an excellent way to cover many of these points.

Key stage 1

Pupils should develop knowledge about the world, the United Kingdom and their locality. They should understand basic subject-specific vocabulary relating to human and physical geography and begin to use geographical skills, including first-hand observation, to enhance their locational awareness

Use simple fieldwork and observational skills to study the geography of their school and its grounds and the key human and physical features of its surrounding environment – could be rural!

Key stage 2

Locational knowledge

Name and locate counties and cities of the United Kingdom, geographical regions and their identifying human and physical characteristics, key topographical features (including hills, mountains, coasts and rivers), and land-use patterns; and understand how some of these aspects have changed over time

Human and physical geography

Describe and understand key aspects of:

human geography, including: types of settlement and land use, economic activity including trade links, and the distribution of natural resources including energy, food, minerals and water

History

Key stage 1

Pupils should be taught about:

Changes within living memory. Where appropriate, these should be used to reveal aspects of change in national life.

Significant historical events, people and places in their own locality

Looking at the recent changes to agriculture in their local area will allow pupils to cover some of these points.

ECO SCHOOL TOPIC LINKS

With apologies if we are ‘teaching grandma to suck eggs’ here are some of our thoughts on how our videos link to the Eco School Topics Showing pupils just which of their food products are grown in this country will give them important background knowledge when discussing transport, energy and global perspective of food production and the healthy living choices they make when they go to the shops.

Energy

Growing food and the associated energy costs of buying home grown food or imported food

Water

Use of water to grow plants

Biodiversity

How growing studying local habitats and where pest are found can help local biodiversity

School grounds

How the simple act of hunting for mini-beasts can help build up a picture of the school grounds in preparation for the design and creation of new features in your school grounds

Healthy living

How growing your own produce can promote healthy living by promoting a healthy diet and also promoting exercise in the act of growing that produce. The improvement of school ground can also aid mental well being.

Transport

Reduce transport costs of food by growing your own local produce.

Litter

When carrying out gardening tasks introduce children to tidy habits – pick up all packaging and dispose of ‘thoughtfully’ – see waste

When outside be it school, garden or countryside “Take only photos Leave only footprints!”

Waste

Explain that gardening and farming is and always has been synonymous with recycling. Re-use seed trays, compost is made from last years ‘recycled’ plants. Think twice abut where to put litter – bin or recycle?

Global citizenship

Explain how even the little things we do – where how food comes from, how much we recycle, our biodiversity, can affect the whole world be it good or bad!

Teachers learn all about different Food Stories by joining our latest project “Discovering STEM Links in the local food chain” – read more

9 November 2015 – Managing the seasons

Seasonal Breeding Livestock – Some animals are seasonal breeders only mating at certain times of year, like sheep in Autumn, others like pigs will breed all year round.

Eating vegetables out of season. How can you enjoy your 5-a-day all year round. This looks at the different ways we use to preserve food so we can enjoy it out of season. Freeze it! Cool it! Fly it! Cover it! Time it!

Growing Vegetables through the seasons. How planting vegetables all year round can help you enjoy fresh produce as much as possible

NATIONAL CURRICULUM SUBJECTS LINKS.

Our programs link too many parts of the curriculum. Some of these links are directly through the content. Other links are dependent on the way you use these videos for class discussions etc. I have added some comments to each of the sections of the curriculum below and how the videos show or highlight these areas, either to connect to current learning or revise past learning. Curriculum Links to video content

Technology – Cooking & Nutrition

Key stage 1

Understand where food comes from.

Key stage 2

Understand seasonality, and know where and how a variety of ingredients are grown, reared, caught and processed.

The videos show the cycles of how food is produced throughout the year giving a far better understanding of the time it takes to produce food and its connection with seasonality.

Science

For Year 1 pupils the videos show the life cycles of plants and animals, how they are sown or born then grow and are harvested. This is shown as it really happens and linked to the seasons.

Year 1

Plants

Identify and name a variety of common plants,including garden plants,wild plants and trees,and those classified as deciduous and evergreen

Identify and describe the basic structure of a variety of common flowering plants, including roots, stem/trunk, leaves and flowers

Animals Including humans

Identify and name a variety of common animals that are birds, fish, amphibians, reptiles, mammals and invertebrates

Identify and name a variety of common animals that are carnivores, herbivores and omnivores

Describe and compare the structure of a variety of common animals (birds, fish, amphibians, reptiles, mammals and invertebrates, and including pets)

Seasonal Changes

Observe changes across the four seasons

Observe and describe weather associated with the seasons and how day length varies.

Year 2

For year 2 pupils the videos allow them to observe the life cycles of plants and animals and how farmers provide for the basic needs of both their animals and plants.

Living things and their habitats

Explore and compare the differences between things that are living, dead,and things that have never been alive.

Identify that most living things live in habitats to which they are suited and describe how different habitats provide for the basic needs of different kinds of animals and plants, and how they depend on each other

Identify and name a variety of plants and animals in their habitats, including micro-habitats

Describe how animals obtain their food from plants and other animals, using the idea of a simple food chain, and identify and name different sources of food

Plants

Observe and describe how seed sand bulbs grow into mature plants

Find out and describe how plants need water, light and a suitable temperature to grow and stay healthy

Animals including humans

Notice that animals,including humans,have off spring which grow into adults

Find out about and describe the basic needs of animals, including humans,for survival (water, food and air)

Year 3

For year 3 pupils the videos give you the opportunity to link to the parts of plants and how this is important to the food we eat from each part of the plant. How animals need a balanced diet just like humans.

Plants

Identify and describe the functions of different parts of flowering plants: roots, stem/trunk, leaves and flowers

Explore the requirements of plants for life and growth (air, light, water, nutrients from soil, and room to grow) and how they vary from plant to plant

Investigate the way in which water is transported within plants

Explore the part that flowers play in the life cycle of flowering plants, including pollination, seed formation and seed dispersal

Animals including humans

Identify that animals,including humans,need the right types and amount of nutrition,and that they cannot make their own food;they get nutrition from what they eat

Rocks

Recognise that soils are made from rocks and organic matter.

Year 4

For year 4 pupils the videos will help them make connections between work on classification and the animals found locally on farms and in the countryside. Use this as a basis for the construction of their first food chains based on the food they eat.

Living things and their habitats

Recognise that living things can be grouped in a variety of ways

Explore and use classification keys to help group, identify and name a variety of living things in their local and wider environment

Recognise that environments can change and that this can sometimes pose dangers to living things.

Animals including humans

Construct and interpret a variety of food chains, identifying producers, predators and prey

Year 5

For year 5 pupils the videos will allow them to follow the life cycles on local animals and plants which they would not be able to witness as they progress through the year.

All living things

Describe the differences in the life cycles of a mammal, an amphibian, an insect and a bird

Describe the life process of reproduction in some plants and animals

Year 6

For year 6 pupils the videos will allow pupils to observe different local living things and use their knowledge of classification to put them into groups. The way farmers select breeding animals is also a good way to start the teaching of evolution and inheritance.

Living things and their habitats

Describe how living things are classified into broad groups according to common observable characteristics and based on similarities and differences, including micro-organisms, plants and animals

Give reasons for classifying plants and animals based on specific characteristics

Evolution and inheritance

Recognise that living things have changed over time and that fossils provide information about living things that inhabited the Earth millions of years ago

Recognise that living things produce offspring of the same kind, but normally offspring vary and are not identical to their parents

Identify how animals and plants are adapted to suit their environment in different ways and that adaptation may lead to evolution

Curriculum links which can be made via use of video for discussion or as source of data about food production etc

English

Participate in discussions and debates

Articulate and justify answers, arguments and opinions

Year 1

Listening to and discussing a wide range of non-fiction at a level beyond that at which they can read independently

Year 2

Listening to, discussing and expressing views about a wide range of contemporary and classic poetry, stories and non-fiction at a level beyond that at which they can read independently

Writing narratives about personal experiences and those of others (real and fictional)

Writing about real events

Writing for different purposes

Year 3-4

Pupils should continue to have opportunities to write for a range of real purposes and audiences as part of their work across the curriculum. These purposes and audiences should underpin the decisions about the form the writing should take, such as a narrative, an explanation or a description

Year 5-6

Distinguish between statements of fact and opinion

Maths

Year 1-2

Teaching should also involve using a range of measures to describe and compare different quantities such as length, mass, capacity/volume, time and money.

Year 3

Interpret and present data using bar charts, pictograms and tables

Year 4

Interpret and present discrete and continuous data using appropriate graphical methods, including bar charts and time graphs.

Key stage 1

Key stage 2

Select, use and combine a variety of software (including internet services) on a range of digital devices to design and create a range of programs, systems and content that accomplish given goals, including collecting, analysing, evaluating and presenting data and information

Geography

A high-quality geography education should inspire in pupils a curiosity and fascination about the world and its people that will remain with them for the rest of their lives. Teaching should equip pupils with knowledge about diverse places, people, resources and natural and human environments, together with a deep understanding of the Earth’s key physical and human processes. As pupils progress, their growing knowledge about the world should help them to deepen their understanding of the interaction between physical and human processes, and of the formation and use of landscapes and environments.

Geographical knowledge, understanding and skills provide the frameworks and approaches that explain how the Earth’s features at different scales are shaped, interconnected and change over time.

Understand the processes that give rise to key physical and human geographical features of the world, how these are interdependent and how they bring about spatial variation and change over time.

Agriculture, horticulture food production and the countryside are an excellent way to cover many of these points.

Key stage 1

Pupils should develop knowledge about the world, the United Kingdom and their locality. They should understand basic subject-specific vocabulary relating to human and physical geography and begin to use geographical skills, including first-hand observation, to enhance their locational awareness

Use simple fieldwork and observational skills to study the geography of their school and its grounds and the key human and physical features of its surrounding environment – could be rural!

Key stage 2

Locational knowledge

Name and locate counties and cities of the United Kingdom, geographical regions and their identifying human and physical characteristics, key topographical features (including hills, mountains, coasts and rivers), and land-use patterns; and understand how some of these aspects have changed over time

Human and physical geography

Describe and understand key aspects of:

human geography, including: types of settlement and land use, economic activity including trade links, and the distribution of natural resources including energy, food, minerals and water

History

Key stage 1

Pupils should be taught about:

Changes within living memory. Where appropriate, these should be used to reveal aspects of change in national life.

Significant historical events, people and places in their own locality

Looking at the recent changes to agriculture in their local area will allow pupils to cover some of these points.

ECO SCHOOL TOPIC LINKS

With apologies if we are ‘teaching grandma to suck eggs’ here are some of our thoughts on how our videos link to the Eco School Topics Showing pupils just which of their food products are grown in this country will give them important background knowledge when discussing transport, energy and global perspective of food production and the healthy living choices they make when they go to the shops.

Energy

Growing food and the associated energy costs of buying home grown food or imported food

Water

Use of water to grow plants

Biodiversity

How growing studying local habitats and where pest are found can help local biodiversity

School grounds

How the simple act of hunting for mini-beasts can help build up a picture of the school grounds in preparation for the design and creation of new features in your school grounds

Healthy living

How growing your own produce can promote healthy living by promoting a healthy diet and also promoting exercise in the act of growing that produce. The improvement of school ground can also aid mental well being.

Transport

Reduce transport costs of food by growing your own local produce.

Litter

When carrying out gardening tasks introduce children to tidy habits – pick up all packaging and dispose of ‘thoughtfully’ – see waste

When outside be it school, garden or countryside “Take only photos Leave only footprints!”

Waste

Explain that gardening and farming is and always has been synonymous with recycling. Re-use seed trays, compost is made from last years ‘recycled’ plants. Think twice abut where to put litter – bin or recycle?

Global citizenship

Explain how even the little things we do – where how food comes from, how much we recycle, our biodiversity, can affect the whole world be it good or bad!

Encouraged by our recognition as ‘Inspiring Educators’ in the Bayer FACE 2015 Awards (Inspiring Educator) we now have another innovative project, the ‘Discovering STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics) project is designed to allow local food producers and teachers to work collaboratively so they can support each other in educating pupils and their families as to how and where their local food is produced. This project links in well with the new GCSE in Food Preparation and Nutrition which schools start delivering in September. Part of this exciting new GCSE is all about Food and its provenance just what we are covering in the Discovering STEM links project.

We are now looking for more schools to join our 6 Food Story Visits

Dairy

Beef

Potatoes

Cereals / Combinable crops

Pigs

Tomatoes / horticulture)

These food story visits are for teachers to give them an insight into each food story from farm to fork by visiting local farms and then relevant local food producers. There will also be 2 CPD sessions:

One to give general back ground information about local food production and also learn about and feedback on the teaching resources that will be developed for each food story.

The second will be to feedback and comment on the teaching resources and how the whole project has gone.

The schools also have the options of:

A free visit from the Farmer Mark Farming Road Show (see sample of Farmer Mark here) to help them launch the food story teaching themes with their pupils.

Farm Visit – Farmer Mark can also help and assist in organising and running pupil visits to local farms if the schools require this start up help.

The only cost to the schools will that of releasing a teacher to take part in each food story visits (expected to be an afternoon) and the 2 CPD sessions (expected to be after school day has ended). As we are based in East Yorkshire the project is primarily aimed at schools in Hull and East Yorkshire, mainly due to the travel involved but this does not exclude schools from other areas of Yorkshire or even N Lincs.

Contact me via e-mail below or phone 07811296713 if you are interested and /or have any questions. Or if you would like me to visit your school to discuss further with you / head teacher.